Questions remain over land sale programme

DESPITE reassurances from government land agents, question marks must exist over whether this year's Crown land disposal programme has become another victim of the Sino-British political row.

Surely, if relations between Britain and China were better, both sides would have managed to agree on a new programme before the Government's stock of disposable land dries up.

Both parties have a financial interest in regular money-spinning auctions going ahead unhindered, for revenue raised through government land sales will form a mighty chunk of the reserves that will be handed over when China assumes sovereignty in 1997.

Instead we are left in limbo with no more land auctions on the timetable and no date for a Sino-British Land Commission meeting decided.

A record $12.43 billion was raised at land auctions to boost government coffers during the past financial year, capped by last week's auction of four plots which together fetched $4.06 billion.

Hongkong's real estate tycoons illustrated their insatiable thirst for good development land and seemingly bottomless pockets with the scramble for a 280,510 sq ft residential site at Diamond Hill which fetched $3.53 billion last month.

It would be wrong to see last week's $2.85 billion sale of a commercial site at Yau Yat Tsuen, far below expectations, as a cooling of market sentiment. This is a particularly difficult site to develop.

A better picture of the current lust for land was had from the sale of a smaller 69,427 sq ft non-industrial site at Ma On Shan in Sha Tin, which sold for $990 million after keen bidding.